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If you had access to only one JG soundtrack album, which would you want it to be?


Jurassic Shark

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Star Trek: The Motion Picture (C&C)

 

It's the first JG scored movie I ever saw, although at 6 years of age the music didn't register with me (it wasn't Star Wars after all) until I rediscovered it on TV in the late 80's. The movie left quite an impression with those incredible V'ger visuals, the slow pace never bothered me. I even had some of the action figures and the toy Enterprise and Spock's shuttle.

 

It was the second JG album I purchased. The first was Up-Art's weird Legend release - a blind buy - which took me a good few listens to warm up too, but once I did I was hooked. 

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How do i choose between ALIEN, Star Trek TMP, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Air Force One??

 

I guess I'd go with Star Trek.  I feel like there's always more to discover in those Cloud and VGer cues

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You choose STTMP because its head and shoulders better tha. ALIEN, Horner's ALIENS IS superior as well. STTMP IS better than almost all JW scores, almost

 

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The only tough JG Choice is a single track but even then The Waltons season 2 title over The Enterprise. 

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40 minutes ago, JoeinAR said:

You choose STTMP because its head and shoulders better tha. ALIEN

 

Why can't they both be good, just different (which they are)? 

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Isn't this basically just an alternative way to ask the question: 'what is your favourite JG score?' As in that whole 'Desert Island' thing?

 

In any case, my favourite is THE MUMMY, so I'll pick that.

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My favorite Jerry Goldsmith score is The Artist Who Did Not Want to Paint, but since it was written for a short film it’s only 12.5 (sublime) minutes long, and I wouldn’t want to limit myself to that, great as it is. My favorite Goldsmith feature score is Lonely Are the Brave, and I might go with that, but I’m leaning towards something with more variety... what I would consider to be Goldsmith’s magnum opus and at an hour and a half in length, one of the longest and most substantial works in his entire output: QBVII. Yes, if I can only pick one to have with me, it would be that — because it has so many different Goldsmiths represented in it! It’s got a bit of action, a bit of horror, a bit of his fantastic choral writing (a full year before he won his Oscar for The Omen), a thrilling fanfare, a sequence of his great middle eastern sound, a lot of his great Jewish sound, his avant garde side, romantic side, and more! Enough variety, thematic material, and development of it to sustain many many repeat listens and discover more each time.

 

Utter masterpiece.

 

Buy it if you don’t already have it:

https://www.tadlowmusic.com/2013/12/qb-vii/

 

Yavar

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6 hours ago, Romão said:

Maybe not his best, but I find The Shadow to be endlessly relistenable


That’s my favorite of his 90s work — I’m the rare person apparently who will take it over Total Recall any day. In fact if I were prompted to pick something from the last couple decades of his life I think it would be my desert island pick. I agree that it’s endlessly relistenable. I just relistened to the whole 85 minute score last night while doing dishes and it was as fresh and awesome as it ever was. It feels like Jerry’s (more action-filled) 90s successor to Star Trek: The Motion Picture IMO.

 

Yavar

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Depending on what day it is, it would be either Gremlins 2 or The Burbs. 

 

2 hours ago, Yavar Moradi said:


That’s my favorite of his 90s work — I’m the rare person apparently who will take it over Total Recall any day. In fact if I were prompted to pick something from the last couple decades of his life I think it would be my desert island pick. I agree that it’s endlessly relistenable. I just relistened to the whole 85 minute score last night while doing dishes and it was as fresh and awesome as it ever was. It feels like Jerry’s (more action-filled) 90s successor to Star Trek: The Motion Picture IMO.

 

Yavar

 

I prefer The Shadow over Total Recall as well. Sure the later has some incredible action and orchestral, but for some reason it's The Shadow I keep going back. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I can't get enough of that main theme, or the fact that I'm actually a big fan of the movie it's based off, so my love for that score is partially routed in that. The track Mirrors is an incredible piece of action writing. 

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3 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

Depending on what day it is, it would be either Gremlins 2 or The Burbs. 

 

 

I prefer The Shadow over Total Recall as well. Sure the later has some incredible action and orchestral, but for some reason it's The Shadow I keep going back. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I can't get enough of that main theme, or the fact that I'm actually a big fan of the movie it's based off, so my love for that score is partially routed in that. The track Mirrors is an incredible piece of action writing. 


I love all three central themes (plus assorted motifs!) in The Shadow. In contrast I dig the textures of Total Recall (but The Shadow has great ones too), but the main theme I think is really lame. Only good melody in the score is The Mutant and it only appears the one time!

 

Yavar

 

P.S. I also adore The ‘Burbs....maybe even more than The Shadow!

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3 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:


I love all three central themes (plus assorted motifs!) in The Shadow. In contrast I dig the textures of Total Recall (but The Shadow has great ones too), but the main theme I think is really lame. Only good melody in the score is The Mutant and it only appears the one time!

 

Yavar

 

P.S. I also adore The ‘Burbs....maybe even more than The Shadow!

 

Oh yes, the main theme in Total Recall feels like standard Jerry Goldsmith, whereas The Shadow feels more like Goldsmith unhinged. I particularly enjoy that secondary vague oriental sounding action motif / theme for Khan, and as mentioned already the love theme is nothing sort of exquisite.  

 

The Burbs is my favorite of his Joe Dante collaborations, both film and score. So much fun. I remember years and years ago stumbling upon the Square One End Credits on Youtube, and playing it nonstop like twenty times. Love the Patton reference, especially. 

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46 minutes ago, Fancyarcher said:

 

Oh yes, the main theme in Total Recall feels like standard Jerry Goldsmith, whereas The Shadow feels more like Goldsmith unhinged. I particularly enjoy that secondary vague oriental sounding action motif / theme for Khan, and as mentioned already the love theme is nothing sort of exquisite.  

 

The Burbs is my favorite of his Joe Dante collaborations, both film and score. So much fun. I remember years and years ago stumbling upon the Square One End Credits on Youtube, and playing it nonstop like twenty times. Love the Patton reference, especially. 


I agree with everything you wrote, except my favorite two parts of The ‘Burbs are the western theme (sometimes with musics gunshots lol) and the horror(?) theme (with organ). I love every last element of The Shadow and The ‘Burbs though, to be clear. :)

 

Yavar

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8 hours ago, Thor said:

Isn't this basically just an alternative way to ask the question: 'what is your favourite JG score?' As in that whole 'Desert Island' thing?

 

In any case, my favourite is THE MUMMY, so I'll pick that.

 

Not exactly. The thread title is referring to the album presentations. OST, expanded, complete, whatever you like that's out there.

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2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Not exactly. The thread title is referring to the album presentations. OST, expanded, complete, whatever you like that's out there.

 

I see. Well, it goes without saying that 99% of the time, whatever title I mention, I will always and forever be talking about the OST. I rarely even feel the need to specify. Among the 1% exceptions would be things like OSTs that only had one or two score cuts among songs (socalled 'songtracks') that didn't represent the score properly. Like the OST of GREMLINS, for example. But then again, the Varese OST of GREMLINS 2 is better than the score-only release of GREMLINS anyway, so it wouldn't have been picked even it were a contender.

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41 minutes ago, Thor said:

Like the OST of GREMLINS, for example. But then again, the Varese OST of GREMLINS 2 is better than the score-only release of GREMLINS anyway, so it wouldn't have been picked even it were a contender.

 

I have to say, in the case of Gremlins, I feel the short suite on the OST is perfectly adequate. All those weird synth cat calls on the expanded score are very grating to listen to.

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23 minutes ago, JTWfan77 said:

 

I have to say, in the case of Gremlins, I feel the short suite on the OST is perfectly adequate. All those weird synth cat calls on the expanded score are very grating to listen to.

 

You may be right. I never actually owned the commercially released score-only release of GREMLINS, but had a CD-R of the bootleg back in the 90s (which had surprisingly good sound). I found so much of the score grating (including the reasons you cite) that I eventually broke the disc in half and threw it in the trash bin. Now I don't even have the OST; only GREMLINS 2 which gets to represent these scores for all eternity.

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On 12/9/2019 at 12:37 PM, JTWfan77 said:

 

Why can't they both be good, just different (which they are)? 

One is good. The other is so much better.

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 I like Alien. I LOVE STTMP.  It is the greatest thing JG ever created. Masterpiece should be reserved for something  this quality.

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Actually, I agree.

 

I remember exactly the day I've heard ST TMP for the first time: it was on New Year's Eve, December 31st, 2011. Back then, I was only a 18 year old college student that was still beginning to expand my knowledge about film music listening to the classics. I haven't watched the movie back then, since I was never a big Trek fan, we didn't had the DVDs (or the money to buy them), nor Netflix to stream it (I only got around watching it last year).

 

So, when I listened to the fanfare for the first time, I was simply entraced. Hipnothized. Mesmerized. And I had found a passion for the whole life. 

 

Fortunately, I could listen to the entire thing before going to the New Year's party (that here we call Revéillon, don't know how do you call it there).

 

A few days later, I listened to Total Recall and, after listening to End of a Dream countless times on repeat, found another JG score that I loved.

 

Until this day, both these scores are still on my top 10 film scores ever.

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